My husband and I spent a little over an hour birding Twin Lakes today. Copies
of my e-bird reports are below, but here are the highlights:
-at North Twin we only spent time near the Covered Bridge of Featherstone park.
Beyond 16 Northern Shovelers, who spend most of their time bottom-up, there
wasn't much there.
We drove the South Twin loop as well; Noticeable in their absence were
Mergansers, Scaup, gulls, and any geese species except for Canadas. Pelicans
were still around, but in few numbers. Cormorants seemed more numerous.
We saw two large collections of Coot, one batch in the water just south
of the golf course, and one on the golf course itself. That group included 2
Canada Geese who almost seemed to be "parenting" or "herding" the coot.
Another highlight was no fewer that 7 Egrets, a couple of which where
quite close to the road.
Location: Feather Stone Memorial Park-Covered Bridge
Observation date: 4/8/11
Number of species: 6
Canada Goose X Heard only
Blue-winged Teal 1
Northern Shoveler 16
American Coot 2
Killdeer X
American Robin 1
Location: South Twin Lake Lake Access #1
Observation date: 4/8/11
Notes: Location name is rough mid-point. We car birded, beginning where
the road runs along the NW corner of South Twin, following the road all around
the lake, ending NE of the golf course. We also drove down the drive to the
houses that border the N end of the golf course.
Number of species: 18
Canada Goose 30
Gadwall 5
Blue-winged Teal 5 The hen and 3 males were in the pond across the
gravel road from South Twin Lake.
Northern Shoveler 5 In the pond across the gravel road from South Twin
Lake.
Green-winged Teal (American) 5 The hen and one drake were in the water
at the culvert on the golf course road, at the north end of the lake/marsh.
The other drakes were in the pond across the gravel road from South Twin Lake.
Redhead 3
Ring-necked Duck 1
Ruddy Duck 8 The 5 "sex unknown" ducks were sleeping, thus unable to ID
by gender.
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Double-crested Cormorant 100 Estimated numbers; in the reeds at the
north end of the lake.
American White Pelican 25 Most at the north end of the lake, along the
edge of the reeds.
Great Egret 7 3 or more in the reeds along the golf course road. The
rest across the water, mixed in with the pelicans and cormorants.
American Coot 130 c. 50 in the water just S. of the golf course.
c. 70 (at least!) on the grass near the 2nd tee of the golf course, along with
2 geese. All the Coot entered the water as our car got close.
The remaining coot were scattered in smaller groups along the lake.
Killdeer 1
Mourning Dove 1
American Robin 15
Red-winged Blackbird X heard only
Common Grackle 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
Lorinda H. M. Hoover, OSL
[email protected]
Rockwell City, IA
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